Monitoring the Future: A Continuing Study of American Youth (8th- and 10th-Grade Surveys), 2006 (ICPSR 20180)

Alternate Title: MTF 2006 (8th/10th Grade)

Principal Investigator(s):Johnston, Lloyd D., University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research. Survey Research Center; Bachman, Jerald G., University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research. Survey Research Center; O'Malley, Patrick M., University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research. Survey Research Center; Schulenberg, John E., University of Michigan. Institute for Social Research. Survey Research Center

Summary:

These surveys of 8th- and 10th-grade students are part of a
series that explores changes in important values, behaviors, and
lifestyle orientations of contemporary American youth. Students in
each grade are randomly assigned to complete one of four
questionnaires, each with a different subset of topical questions but
containing a set of "core" questions on demographics and drug
use. There are more than 450 variables across the questionnaires.
Drugs covered by this survey include amphet... (more info)

These surveys of 8th- and 10th-grade students are part of a
series that explores changes in important values, behaviors, and
lifestyle orientations of contemporary American youth. Students in
each grade are randomly assigned to complete one of four
questionnaires, each with a different subset of topical questions but
containing a set of "core" questions on demographics and drug
use. There are more than 450 variables across the questionnaires.
Drugs covered by this survey include amphetamines (stimulants),
barbiturates (tranquilizers), other prescription drugs,
over-the-counter medications, tobacco, smokeless tobacco, alcohol,
inhalants, steroids, marijuana, hashish, LSD, hallucinogens, cocaine,
crack, ecstasy, methamphetamine, and injectable drugs such as heroin.

Universe:
Enrolled 8th- and 10th-grade students in the contiguous
United States.

Data Types:
survey data

Data Collection Notes:

This study was conducted by the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan.

In 2005, two of the questionnaire forms had a
new version of the race question. It included Hispanic as one of
the categories in addition to Black and White. For 2006, all four
forms have this new version for the race variable.

To protect
the anonymity of respondents, all variables that could be used to
identify individuals have been collapsed or recoded in the public
use files. These modifications should not affect analytic uses of
the public use files.

Variables omitted from the Western region
questionnaires are noted in each codebook.

A user guide is
provided with the study documentation. It contains two year-to-year
cross-time question indices for the MTF 8th- and 10th-grade surveys.
The first is sorted by subject area and the second is sorted by
question location.

Frequency and percentage distributions displayed in the codebooks are unweighted, rather than weighted by variable V5 as they had been in previous years. This change was made to simplify both the production of the codebooks and their interpretation by the analyst.

MTF does not release detailed geography codes in its public use files because of the disclosure risk it would cause. The MTF sample is drawn to generate representative samples of the four Census Bureau regions of the country (Northeast, Midwest, South, and West), but it does not generate representative samples of smaller geographic areas such as states, counties, or cities. For additional information about data that is withheld from the public use files please contact MTF directly at mtfinformation@umich.edu.

Methodology

Sample:
A multistage area probability sample design was used
involving three selection stages: (1) geographic areas or primary
sampling units (PSUs), (2) schools (or linked groups of schools)
within PSUs, and (3) students within sampled schools. Of the 72 PSUs,
8 were selected with certainty, 10 were selected with a probability of
.50, and the remainder were selected with probability proportionate to
the size of the 8th- or 10th- grade class. In schools with more than
350 students in the grade, a random sample of students or classes was
drawn. In schools with less than 350 students in a grade, all students
were asked to participate. Each school was asked to participate for
two years so that each year one-half of the sample would be replaced.
Schools refusing participation were replaced with similar schools in
terms of geographic location, size, and type of school (e.g., public,
private/Catholic, private/non-Catholic). For the 8th-grade survey,
schools with less than 20 8th graders were excluded from the sample.
For the 10th-grade survey, schools with less than 25 10th graders were
excluded. The participation rate among schools has been between 66 and
80 percent since the inception of the study.

Weight:
Each of the eight parts contains a weight variable, V5.
They were originally varied by school but were modified to protect
respondent confidentiality. Users should use the weight variable for
all analyses, the results of which will differ slightly from published
data tables that used original data.

Mode of Data Collection:
on-site questionnaire

Response Rates:
The student response rates for the 2006 8th- and
10th-grade surveys were 91 percent and 88 percent, respectively.

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Standardized missing values.

Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2007-10-29

Version History:

2010-02-11 Corrected data were provided by the PI for the question asking about binge drinking (item reference number 00850). Other minor corrections were made to the question text and value labels to provide greater consistency between matching variables in other years of data in the series.